Cookies on the Gambling Commission website

The Gambling Commission website uses cookies to make the site work better for you. Some of these cookies are essential to how the site functions and others are optional. Optional cookies help us remember your settings, measure your use of the site and personalise how we communicate with you. Any data collected is anonymised and we do not set optional cookies unless you consent.

Set cookie preferences

You've accepted all cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.

Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. About us
  3. Young People and Gambling 2022: Official statistics

Report

Young People and Gambling 2022: Official statistics

Gambling Commission report produced by Ipsos on young people and their gambling behaviour, attitudes and awareness in 2022.

Published
10 November 2022

Last updated
9 November 2022 - Changes

Document actions
Print or save (opens in new tab)

Contents

Prevalence of non-problem, at risk or problem gambling

The survey identified 0.9 percent of 11 to 16 year olds as problem gamblers, 2.4 percent as at risk gamblers and 27.3 percent as non-problem gamblers. However, seven in ten (68.9 percent) young people did not actively gamble in the last 12 months. All data is based on self-reported active involvement in gambling in the last 12 months.

These categories are defined by the problem gambling screen Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition - Multiple Response Juvenile (DSM-IV-MR-J) devised by Fisher in 2000. It is important to bear in mind that this is a youth-adapted problem gambler screen, which takes account of adolescent behaviour such as spending dinner money on gambling or arguing with friends. It is not comparable with adult problem gambling screens, which include measures such as the impact of gambling on household finances. Information on how the screen is applied for this survey can be found in the Applying the DSM-IV-MR-J problem gambler screen section within the Appendices.

Figure 2: Types of gambler defined by the youth-adapted problem gambling screen – prevalence of non-problem, at risk or problem gambling

A bar chart showing the types of gambler defined by the youth-adapted problem gambling screen. Data from the chart is provided within the following table.

Figure 2 information

Chart shows types of gamblers as defined by the DSM-IV-MR-J youth-adapted problem gambling screen.
Base: All 11 to 16 year olds answering (2,559).
Note: The chart does not show the 1 percent of gamblers who did not provide a response at any question in the gambling screen.

Figure 2: Types of gambler defined by the youth-adapted problem gambling screen – prevalence of non-problem, at risk or problem gambling
Category Percentage
Non-gambler 68.9%
Non-problem gambler 27.3%
At risk gambler 2.4%
Problem gambler 0.9%

As noted in the Executive Summary section, development work that fed into the design of the 2022 questionnaire changed the way in which data was gathered on young people who spent their own money on gambling activities in the last 12 months (and were therefore eligible to answer the problem gambler screen). In the 2022 questionnaire, we have replaced one question with three questions to make it clearer and easier to understand. These changes were made in order to record young people’s active involvement in gambling more accurately. However, the implications of doing this are that the figures for problem gambling are not comparable to previous years.

Previous section
Variations in active involvement in types of gambling activities Next section
Problem gambling by gender
Is this page useful?
Back to top